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Gears of War 2 Title Updates
Gears of War 2 had 6 titles updates. The first was released on Jan 21 2009 and the latest one released on May 25 2010. =Title Update 2= The second Title Update for Gears of War 2 was released on January 21st, 2009. Exploit Fixes Title Update 2 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances: *A player could melee or grenade tag through certain walls. *A player could equip a shield and a two-handed weapon simultaneously. *A player could make their shield invisible. *A player could become invisible. *A player could do a "super" mantle or "kung fu flip," flying high into the air. *A player could gain unlimited ammo with the Lancer Assault Rifle. *A player could fire while roadie running (also known as "crabwalking"). *A player could pick up a weapon while sliding into cover. *A player could walk forward while firing a deployed mortar. *A player could force an opponent to be stuck in the down but not out (DBNO) position. *A player could prevent other players from picking up a heavy weapon. *A player could pick up a dropped meatflag without having to knock him down. *A ragdolled player could be killed without ever going DBNO. *A player could roadie run while firing the Scorcher Flamethrower. *A player could get stuck while evading, though they could continue shooting in any direction. *A player could concuss themselves under the stairs on the River map. General Fixes Title Update 2 fixes these other issues as well: *An issue with client-side hit detection of the Gnasher Shotgun. The fix makes the shotgun more reliable in high-latency situations. *An issue where players could have shotgun or Boomshot rounds fire into the ground when shooting from the hip. *A split-screen issue where one player transitioning to the death battle camera disrupted input from the other player. *An issue with players leaving multiplayer games, and cause match to freeze while a new host was picked to take over the match. *An issue that could cause players' Look sensitivity to be changed to their Zoom sensitivity while zooming in, zooming out, and firing. *An issue that could cause players to get stuck if they tried to pick up a heavy weapon while firing the shotgun at the same time. *An issue where players could become stuck if they kicked over a shield while ragdolled from a smoke grenade. *An issue where bots were unable to kick over a shield that was planted backward. *An issue where players who quit during voting didn't show up in the end game stats, which meant other players couldn't easily provide negative feedback on them. *An issue where players couldn't chainsaw enemy meatshields if the meatshields were already damaged. *An issue where some players would not see the animation of a meatshield being chainsawed. *An issue where players could not chainsaw an opposing team meatshield in a game type that doesn't allow respawns (for example, Warzone and Execution). *An issue where a player partway through the act of raising or lowering the chainsaw did not transition into a duel when attacked from the front with a chainsaw. *An issue where occasionally a player waiting to respawn could not respawn when repeatedly hitting the left trigger to switch cameras. *An issue where some teammates couldn't communicate between rounds in games type that don't allow respawns, because dead team members were left in the dead radio channel until the next round started. *An issue where a DBNO player could be seen as standing if knocked DBNO while reloading the mortar. *An issue where a player joining a Private Xbox LIVE game in progress from another specific type of game could potentially lose HUD functionality. *An issue on the Flood map where a player's dying from Imulsion did not trigger a death message or penalize the player as other environmental deaths did. *An issue with Guardian games where if the leader is the last player killed on a team, the round may not end, due to the respawn timer. *A campaign issue where the gamer picture would not be awarded when the game is completed on Insane. *An issue where a player would continue to fire the flamethrower and damage other players if that player was knocked DBNO while firing it. *An issue that could cause a player to get stuck while moving and quickly attempting to aim the mortar at the same time. *An issue with Horde games where clients didn't receive the "waiting for host" message after they failed a wave. *A Horde split-screen issue that could cause a team to get –2 billion in score, which when posted to the leaderboards looked like +2 billion. *An issue where dead players may not show up in the metadata for multiplayer photos. *A system link issue where if a multiplayer match and a co-op game were hosted at the same time on the same LAN, neither could be joined. *Additional miscellaneous bug fixes. Balancing Title Update 2 makes these balancing changes: *Made planted proximity grenade mines much easier to shoot off the surface they're planted on, by giving them 50 percent less health. *Set grenades to respawn less frequently. When a player picks up grenades from a spawned location, a new set of grenades does not respawn until the previous grenades have been used. *Increased the penalty to rank for players who quit Public Xbox LIVE matches early. *Buffed the flamethrower to have stopping power (to slow a charging enemy) and to cause a chainsaw interrupt (to force the opponent to lower a revved chainsaw). *Removed the ability to instantly shoot coming out of a roadie run. *Added additional spawn protection to prevent proximity grenade mines and chainsaws from killing a player within 5 seconds after spawning. *Balanced grenade spawn cycling on the Hail map so that both teams have equal access to both types of grenades. Improvements Title Update 2 makes these new improvements: *Changed Annex games to use execution rules, to prevent players from leaving DBNO opponents on the ground to bleed out. *Made Horde waves count toward the "Party Like It's 1999" achievement. Each wave is counted as one round. *Added the ability, during Submission games, to see the flag's final destination by using Tac/Com. *Increased the frequency of most of the toasts for in-game achievement progression. *Added achievement progression numbers to the War Journal. *Added 7 new DLC-based achievements worth 175 points (progress toward them starts after Title Update 2 is applied): **"Skeletons in Your Closet" (20 points): Complete waves 1 through 10 on all Flashback Map Pack maps in Horde (any difficulty). **"Trial by, and on, Fire" (20 points): Complete waves 1 through 10 on all Combustible Map Pack maps in Horde (any difficulty). **"More Mystery, Less History" (15 points): Win a multiplayer match on each of the 5 Flashback Map Pack maps (any mode except Wingman). **"The Roof! The Roof! The Roof…" (15 points): Win a multiplayer match on each of the 3 Combustible Map Pack maps (any mode except Wingman). **"Bound by a Shared Past" (15 points): Win a Wingman match on each of the 5 Flashback Map Pack maps. **"Forged in the Fire" (15 points): Win a Wingman match on each of the 3 Combustible Map Pack maps. **"Annex: Now with Execution Rules" (75 points): Win an Annex match on each of the Flashback and Combustible Map Pack maps (Public only). =Title Update 3= The third Title Update for Gears of War 2 was released on March 24th, 2009. Improvements Title Update 3 makes these new improvements: *Adds 100 levels of player experience that you can gain based on your score in Public matches. The game still uses Trueskill for matchmaking to find the most competitive matches, but the skill rank is now hidden. The new level of experience appears next to your gamertag, with levels 1 through 99 displayed as numbers and level 100 displayed as an icon. The game normalizes experience based on match type so that players earn an equivalent amount of experience across all modes. *Adds an experience penalty for players quitting before a match is complete. *Adds bots automatically to a Public Match if players quit and cause unbalanced teams. This ability has always existed in Private Matches if the bot count is set higher than zero. *Optimizes playlists to only have two modes per playlist. Ties are decided by random selection. *Adds the ability for teams to talk to each other between rounds in a Private Match. *Adds the ability to save Public and Private Horde high scores after each complete wave, in case the host loses connection before failing or completing all fifty waves. *Makes minor changes to general bandwidth usage. *Adds region preference to matchmaking. *Improves standby detection. *Adds nine new achievements worth 250 points. Progress toward them starts after Title Update 3 is applied. Six of the new achievements require the Snowblind Map Pack, a set of four new maps to be released soon. The nine new achievements: **"Rookie Gear" (10 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 5 (Public only). **"Seasoned Gear" (20 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 15 (Public only). **"Battle-Tested Gear" (30 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 25 (Public only). **"Battle-Hardened Gear" (50 points): Reach level 50 and play a match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (Public only). **"Veteran Gear" (75 points): Reach level 100 and win a match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (Public only). **"Never Eat Red Snow" (20 points): Complete waves 1 through 10 on all Snowblind Map Pack maps in Horde (any difficulty). **"Icy Dead People" (25 points): Complete waves 1 through 50 on any Snowblind Map Pack map in Horde (any difficulty). **"Frigid Body Dynamics" (5 points): Play a multiplayer match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (any mode). **"The Weather Outside Is Lethal" (15 points): Win a multiplayer match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (any mode). Exploit Fixes Title Update 3 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances: *A player could swap from a pistol to a two-handed weapon during a cover slide and then mantle greater distances. *Players could kill themselves in Wingman to avoid giving their opponents more points. Now, suicides and team killing will reduce team score. *A player holding a meatshield could melee through some walls. *A player could equip a two-handed weapon with a shield using either the Boltok or the Gorgon pistol. *A player could equip a two-handed weapon with a meatshield using either the Boltok or the Gorgon pistol. *A player could prevent planted shields from being picked up by other players. *Players could launch themselves into the air with a smoke grenade while mantling. General Fixes Title Update 3 fixes these other issues as well: *An issue that caused chainsaw interruption when a player is shot to be less reliable in some body positions than in others. *An issue where a third player could join a Public Wingman party lobby and remove another player from the game. *An issue in Submission games where occasionally the meatflag would immediately run back to the spawn point after being dropped. *An issue where players that were knocked down but not out (DBNO) while planting the Boomshield would appear to be standing. *An elevation-based issue where the detection for a headshot might not align properly with certain character model heads. *An issue that could cause Wingman teammates to have different character models. *Additional miscellaneous bug fixes. Balancing Title Update 3 makes these balancing changes: *Reduces stun duration of smoke grenades. Currently, characters always start to get up after 2 seconds. *Gives melee the same delay after roadie running that shooting received in Title Update 2. *Removes spawn protection from the Horde in Horde mode. *Increased the forward angle that triggers chainsaw duels so that players with Lancers equipped won't be sawn from the side without a duel. *Reduces the delay before a player can climb up after entering low cover. *Makes minor changes to weapon spawns on the Subway map to provide greater balance. =Title Update 4= The fourth Title Update for Gears of War 2 was released on July 7th, 2009. Improvements Title Update 4 makes these new improvements: *Adds the ability to collect multiplayer experience by playing Horde mode. Players currently gain experience at this rate: **50 points per completed Casual wave. **75 points per completed Normal wave. **100 points per completed Hardcore wave. **125 points per completed Insane wave. *Adds the ability to restart Public Horde from the current failed wave instead of having to start over from wave 1. *Increases the frequency of downloadable content (DLC) maps showing up in map voting if all players have shared map packs. *Adds a message at the end of the match to explain to players that they should wait before quitting so that they avoid an experience penalty for quitting early. *Adds support for the new campaign chapter, "Road to Ruin." *Adds 13 new achievements worth 325 points. All of the new achievements require the Dark Corners Map Pack, a set of seven new maps and a deleted campaign chapter to be released July 28. The 13 new achievements are: **"My Way or the Highway" (25 points): Without being detected, complete the "Road to Ruin" deleted scene after choosing the stealth option. **"Highway to Hell" (25 points): Complete the "Road to Ruin" deleted scene after choosing the guns-blazing option. **"Two for the Road" (25 points): Complete the "Road to Ruin" deleted scene in co-op as either Marcus or Dom. **"Be Careful What You Wish For" (10 points): Reach level 5 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 10 on the War Machine map in Horde (any difficulty). **"Ride It All Night Long" (10 points): Reach level 10 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 10 on the Highway map in Horde (any difficulty). **"No, But His Face Rings a Bell" (15 points): Reach level 15 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 20 on the Sanctuary map in Horde (any difficulty). **"Lost in Transition" (20 points): Reach level 20 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 20 on the Way Station map in Horde (any difficulty). **"Like Father, Like Gun" (30 points): Reach level 30 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 30 on the Allfathers Garden map in Horde (any difficulty). **"Am I Only Dreaming?" (40 points): Reach level 40 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 40 on the Memorial map in Horde (any difficulty). **"Blood on the Sand" (50 points): Reach level 50 in multiplayer and complete waves 1 through 50 on the Nowhere map in Horde (any difficulty). **"Afraid of the Dark" (20 points): Play a multiplayer match on each of the seven Dark Corners Map Pack maps (any mode). **"Did Not Go Gentle" (30 points): Win a multiplayer match on each of the seven Dark Corners Map Pack maps (any mode) **"Is it Hot or Is That Just You?" (25 points): Kill 25 Bloodmounts with a Scorcher Flamethrower while playing Horde on a Dark Corners Map Pack map (any difficulty). Exploit Fixes Title Update 4 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances: *A player could copy game progression data from one profile to another. *A team could use the 50-point revive bonus to artificially increase its score in Horde. Going down but not out (DBNO) in Horde now subtracts 50 points, so there is no advantage to using the revive-bonus technique. *A player could get 2 points for each kill in Wingman. *A player could continue to shoot the Flamethrower while performing special movements like evading and mantling. *A player could cause heavy weapons to spawn continuously while playing Horde. *Additional lesser-known exploits. General Fixes Title Update 4 fixes these other issues as well: *An issue that could cause players to lose all achievement progression if they signed in during a loading screen. *Issues related to the Smoke Grenade causing a player to cringe instead of knocking them down. If hit by a Smoke Grenade with cringing turned on, players will now: **Drop the Boomshield, even if aiming while carrying it. **Drop a heavy weapon, even if it is deployed. **Cringe while roadie running. **Cringe while in cover. *An issue that prevented players from shooting around the lower left side of a planted shield. *An issue that could cause a DBNO player to not appear as DBNO. *An issue that prevented Gears players from inviting players of other games to join them in progress in a Private match using DLC. *Issues that caused rich presence information to become inaccurate. *An issue that caused the overall achievements progress bar to not reflect the latest achievements. *An assortment of localization bug fixes. *Additional miscellaneous bug fixes. Balancing Title Update 4 makes these balancing changes: *Adds a 30-second delay in map-based weapon spawning at the beginning of a Wingman match. *Adds more future server-side balancing options. =Title Update 5= The fifth Title Update for Gears of War 2 was released on October 26th, 2009. Improvements Title Update 5 makes these new improvements: *Adds the ability to view friendly-planted grenades in Tac/Com. *Removes the cringe caused when a smoke grenade forces a player to drop a meatshield. *Adds bonus points to the winning leader's score in the Guardian game mode if the leader successfully survives the winning round. *Changes the postmatch Invite button to only invite former teammates, so a player can create parties more easily instead of trying to create a Private Match that includes both teams from the former match. *Returns the roadie-run camera movements to the way they were in Gears of War 1 by decreasing the dampening values. Exploit Fixes Title Update 5 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances: *A player could modify the game's behavior due to a security vulnerability introduced in an earlier title update. *A player could use a turbo controller to artificially maximize their rate of fire. *A player could mantle a planted shield in competitive multiplayer to hide inside geometry or to travel outside of the map. The ability to mantle shields was removed in competitive multiplayer but remains in Horde and Campaign. *Other, lesser-known exploits. General Fixes Title Update 5 fixes these other issues as well: *An issue that contributed to the "sticky walk" problem, where a player's avatar could stutter after the player picks up a weapon. *An issue that could prevent players from hearing the "boom" telegraph from Boomers. *An issue that could cause looping audio to continue playing after the player who triggered that sound is killed. *An issue that could cause multiple names to be highlighted yellow on the scoreboard instead of the name of the player viewing the scoreboard. *An issue that prevented the game from granting the earned experience points from the fiftieth wave of Horde. *An issue that caused players at level 100 to see the "congratulations" message after every match. *Additional small bug fixes. =Title Update 6= The sixth Title Update for Gears of War 2 was released on May 26th, 2010. Improvements Title Update 6 makes these new improvements: *Adds a new public multiplayer match option called Social Xbox LIVE (aka player matches), open to anyone who owns all downloadable maps (that is, All Fronts Collection). We’ll be having a promotion that will dramatically reduce the cost of the All Fronts Collection. *You can join Social Matches in progress and can quit any time without penalty, although players who quit a match early don’t receive earned experience (XP) from that match. *Social matchmaking lets your party join a match in progress. If a match is not found, your party hosts a new match, filling any empty player slots with bots. *Social Matches automatically cycle to the next map without further matchmaking. *Teams are rebalanced between matches based on XP level without splitting parties. *If you quit, your spot is taken by a bot until a new player joins the match. That new player can join while the match is in progress. *If you join a match in progress, you are assigned a team based on XP level and party size. *If you join a match in progress, you replace a bot at the earliest opportunity: at the first bot’s death for respawning game types (for example, Annex) and at round completion for Warzone, Execution, and Wingman. *Social leaderboards become part of the War Journal. *Renames Public Matches to Ranked Xbox LIVE Matches to differentiate these from Social Xbox LIVE Matches, and adds some improvements to these matches. *Improved host selection using bandwidth testing and previous hosting data has been added. *Before the match begins, teams are balanced based on XP without splitting parties. *Renames Private Matches to Custom Xbox LIVE Matches and makes these matches invite-only. *Adds the ability to join Horde sessions that are in progress. *In Social Horde, you can join a session in progress through matchmaking and you are able to continue your session from the last wave you failed without starting over. *In Ranked Horde, you can join a session in progress only through invites. *If you join a session in progress, at the end of the session you receive the score you achieved during the time you spent in the session. *Improves the precision of weapon selection using the D-pad. *Improves client-side hit detection for ballistic weapons. Exploit Fixes Title Update 6 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances: *Execution rules could be ignored when using certain weapon types. *On the Subway map, you could get outside of the playable environment by sliding into cover and rolling between a train car and the side of tracks. *On the Blood Drive map, you could get outside of the playable environment in various locations. *Players could grief other players on Submission, Annex, King of the Hill, and Guardian games by preventing the objective from being completed while racking up experience. Title Update 6 adds match time limits to each of these game types to prevent this practice. General Fixes Title Update 6 fixes these other issues as well: *An issue that could cause your profile to be overwritten, erasing XP level, and achievement progress. *An issue that could cause a campaign save slot to be overwritten if you previously chose to continue without saving and then signed in. Balancing Title Update 6 makes these balancing changes: *Changes the Gnasher Shotgun pellet pattern to increase hit consistency. *Changes the Guardian game type to select the leader based upon XP level (highest to lowest). =References= Category:Gears of War 2